• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 1996.10a
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• pp.542-547
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• 1996

Prosodic characteristics of natural speech, especially intonation, in many cases represent specific feelings of the speaker at the time of the utterance, with relatively vast variations of speaking styles over the same text. We analyzed a collected speech corpus, recorded with ten Slovene speakers. Interpretation of observed intonation contours was done for the purpose of modelling the intonation contour in synthesis process. We devised a scheme for modeling the intonation contour for different types of intonation units based on the results of analyzing intonation contours. The intonation scheme uses a superpositional approach, which defines the intonation contour as the sum of global (intonation unit) and local (accented syllables or syntactic boundaries) components. Near-to-natural intonation contour was obtained by rules, using only the text of the utterance as input.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.49-62
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• 1999

This study is concerned with the educational program Visual Analysis Tool (VAT) for sound development for foreign intonation using personal computer. The VAT can run on IBM-PC 386 compatible or higher. It shows the spectrogram, waveform, intensity and the pitch contour. The system can work freely on either waveform zoom in-out or the documentation of measured value. In this paper, intensity and pitch contour information were used. Twelve French sentences were recorded from a French conversational tape. And three Korean participated in this study. They spoke out twelve sentences repeatly and trid to make the same pitch contour - by visually matching their pitcgh contour to the native speaker's. A sentences were recorded again when the participants themselves became familiar with intonation, intensity and pauses. The difference of pitch contour(rising or falling), pitch value, energy, total duration of sentences and the boundary of rhythmic group between native speaker's and theirs before and after training were compared. The results were as following: 1) In a declarative sentence: a native speaker's general pitch contour falls at the end of sentences. But the participant's pitch contours were flat before training. 2) In an interrogative: the native speaker made his pitch contours it rise at the end of sentences with the exception of wh-questions (qu'est-ce que) and a pitch value varied a greath. In the interrogative 'S + V' form sentences, we found the pitch contour rose higher in comparison to other sentences and it varied a great deal. 3) In an exclamatory sentence: the pitch contour looked like a shape of a mountain. But the participants could not make it fall before or after training.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.197-200
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to analyze the prosodic characteristics of Korean news utterances. In this paper, prosodic phrases were described in terms of the K-ToBI labeling system. In addition, the change of intonation contour that occurs throughout the sentences was discussed in terms of types of media and gender. According to analyzing the tendency of resets, 331 out of 729 resets were observed at the boundary of the intonation phrases. This means that resets are of the speaker's own volition regardless of prosodic units of intonation phrases. The declination of the intonation contour of radio news showed a gentler slope than that of TV news, because when the sentence is getting longer, the declination of the intonation contour becomes slower.

• MALSORI
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• no.35_36
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• pp.157-173
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• 1998

This is a pilot study on applying the Rise/Fall/connection(RFC) model to Korean intonation tot speech synthesis. RFC model contains successive intonation events, which can be pitch accents and intonation boundary tones. The intonation contour of RFC model is composed of piecewise linear curves of rise, fall, and connection elements, and each element can have any amplitude and duration. In this paper, elements of RFC model is slightly modified to accommodate the characteristics of Korean intonation. Subjective preference test was conducted to compare the modified RFC model with the original one. The results show that the intonation contour produced by the modified RFC model is perceptually indistinguishable from that of the original RFC model, while the former requires less number of labels than the latter.

• MALSORI
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• no.9_10
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• pp.28-90
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• 1985

This study has two objectives. ft attempts to describe the forms and (He functions of sentence final intonations in Korean, and it also attempts to deal with the relationship between questions and rising intonation for Korean and English. The contents of this study are as follows. In Chapter 2, the version of Korean(standard Korean) which this study is assumed to analyse, the sources of material involved, and the method and scope of analysis are stated. Chapter 3, which is a preparatory stage for the analysis of the function of intonation in standard Korean in Chapter 4, classifies the material according to the type of intonation used. In Chapter 4i the discussion is entirely devoted to the function of Korean intonation. The conclusions of Chapter 4 are as follows: Firstly, intonation contours in Korean have the function of distinguishing the sentence types; the falling contour marks declaratives, Wh- interrogatives and imperatives, while the rising contour marks yes/no interrogatives. However, it is interesting to note that in the interrogative sentences with the inflectional ending '-chi', a very different phenomenon is observed; that is to say, most of yes/no interrogatives are marked by the falling contour and all of Wh- interrogatives by the rising one. Secondly, the falling contour in Korean is typically employed in performing the illocutionary act of assertion in rhetorical and tag questions. Thirdly, the intonation in Korean contributes to express the speaker's special attitudes or emotions. In Chapter 5, where the relationship between questions and rising intonation is examined, Liberman's theory turns out to be untenable. Further-more. this thesis shows that an explanation of the relationship between questions and rising intonation should have its basis on general linguistic facts.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.213-221
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• 2010

The number of North Korean refugees entering South Korea is continuously increasing. North Korean speakers show significant differences in vowel and consonant phonetics, length of vowels, and the rhythm and intonation of sentences. The object of this research was to examine the effectiveness of a speech intervention program for North Korean refugees using visual feedback through acoustical analysis for intonation. The subjects were three adults with no speech disabilities who had been in South Korea for less than five years. They had not received any prior treatment for inflection change. The program was set in a discourse situation and used Praat to evaluate intonation and provide visual feedback as demonstrating proper intonation changes through pitch contour. The results after intervention are as follows. First, intonation was significantly improved according to a 5-point subjective evaluation scale. Second, the pitch contour was similar to the contour of standard South Korean pronunciation. The subjects were very satisfied with this initial treatment and showed a high level of motivation. In subsequent study, the development of intervention and the comparison of interventions will be needed as well.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.59-69
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to examine the variation of pitch contour observed in the reading of Korean sentences produced by Chinese Korean-learners. In the reading context, Korean sentence intonation can be described by considering accentual phrases' pitch pattern and intonational phrases' boundary tone. But when APs and IPs connect to each other to form sentences, another aspect of speech production must be considered, that is declination of pitch contour. So, in order to examine how Chinese speakers produce Korean sentence intonation, we have analysed the sentences' pitch contours produced by fourteen Chinese speakers differing in proficiency, and compared them to pitch contours produced by six Korean native speakers. The results show that Chinese speakers tend to decline the pitch contour in shorter sentences, but for longer sentences, the declination was not observed. Moreover, even though Chinese speakers produced sentences with declination, internal tonal modulation differs from native speakers.

• MALSORI
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• no.11_14
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• pp.73-89
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• 1987

This paper is an attempt to propose a new model of intonation called 'Configurational Contour Model'. For our purpose two previous models are discussed : one is the system of tonetic-stress marks and the other is the theory of pitch levels. To overcome shortcomings which these approaches display, the new model is based on two fundamental characteristics of intonation: (1) that intonation is a suprasyllabic phenomenon; and (2) that intonation is basically a matter of configurations, i.e., of rising, falling and level. Accordingly, the new model can be relatable to relevant aspects of the phonetic representation of utterances and also can express all the tonal oppositions in a given language.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.77-89
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• 2007

This paper examined the intonation contours of English sentences produced by the Korean students. Thirty students participated in the speaking tasks made up of three parts: an oral interview, picture description and a conversational text reading. Their pronunciations in the parts were recorded on a minidisk. Then, two native instructors evaluated their proficiency level focusing on general intelligibility and suprasegmental aspects of the speech. Based on the results of evaluation they were divided into two groups: high and low proficiency groups. The pitch contours of three sentences produced by both the Korean students and a native speaker were compared to find any similarities and differences in the students' intonation patterns using Praat. Results showed that there was a moderate correlation in the proficiency scores of the students by the two native speakers. Secondly, students who earned high scores in the proficiency level matched better the native model. Thirdly, the high group students knew more on the pitch contour and tried to carefully realize them while fewer students in the low group answered positively on the questionnaire. In conclusion, English learners need to know the proper intonation patterns and to practice them consciously and sufficiently to realize correct intonation contours. Further studies would be desirable on the students' pronunciation focused on discourse structure.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.95-108
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• 2009

One of the learning difficulties for Korean learners of English is the intonation of English focused yes/no questions. Focused words in English yes/no questions are realized as low pitch accents which contrast with high pitch accents in Korean counterparts. In order to improve Korean students' intonation, direct and metalinguistic explanations on the intonation of English focused yes/no questions were given to Korean learners of English. In pre-tests and post-tests, students' perceptions on the target items were measured. The study results showed that phonetic explanation using intonation contour enhanced students' perception on English intonation. With respect to the position of focused words, sentence initial and medial focused questions were more difficult than sentence final focused questions. The perception was most improved in sentence initial focused questions. The study showed the immediate effects of the explicit instruction on perceptions of English intonation.